Crime and Elements of Crime

What is Crime?

The most fundamental fact is that crime is the point of conflict between the individual and society. The struggle for law is a struggle between the will of ” the one,” the offender, and the will of ” the all,” the state; and this struggle in its final analysis finds itself epitomized in the effort of the state to enforce the criminal law. [1]

There is no clear agreement upon the definition. One of the closest definition is “Crime is an act made punishable by law”. However, it an incomplete definition and hardly describes crime.

Roscoe Pound in An Introduction to the Philosophy of Law has traced no less than twelve ideas of the nature of the law which man has lived under. The ideas emphasize one or more of the aspects of the law.[2] The ideas are those of the divinity, traditionally, equitability, naturalness, immutability, agreeability, harmony, enforceability, utility, reciprocity, limit ability, and acceptability of a particular piece of law or a particular

A better understanding can be that “A crime is a deliberate act that causes physical or psychological harm, damage to or loss of property, and is against the law.”

Different Approaches to Crime

The traditional approach is in cases where the liability of a party depends upon the existence or contemplation of commitment of some main crime or intention of another to commit a crime. Not only must the objective elements of the main crime exist potentially or in fact, but there must be a principal actor who is or would be responsible in law for them. Thus, for all purposes, criminality identifies with the concept of crime. Without a criminal there is no crime. However, this approach when applied to” dependent ” crimes can lead to an arbitrary result.

An early opportunity for the judges to develop all objective approach to crime was presented. The court came up with the doctrine of innocent agency to determine the liability of an accomplice in a crime.[3] It is to determine the instrumentality of the accused.

There are three possible conditions to determine whether a crime exists in the objective sense:

(a) All its elements are established but the liability of the principal is negatived by some defence of a personal nature (e.g. infancy, insanity or coercion); or

(b) all the elements o£ the actus reus are established but the principal lacks mens rea as to some circumstance; or

(c) all the elements of the actus reus are established but the principal has a complete lack of the required mental element.

Elements of Crime[4]

1. Crime must be committed by a Person

There cannot be a crime without someone committing it. It doesn’t mean that only a natural person can commit a crime. An artificial person is also as capable of performance of a crime; but there must exist a perpetrator causing the act or omission which amounts to crime.

2. Act or omission to Act

There can be no crime without either

1. an act which consists of an exertion of the will and a manifestation thereof in the external world, or
2. an omission to act when a criminal statute requires that an act be done. Unless the act is criminal there is no crime regardless of the existence of criminal intent.

3. Intent

There can be no crime without an intent. An act and an intent must concur on same point of time. With respect to the element of intent there are three classes of crimes :

1. those petty statutory crimes which are mala prohibita and require merely the act and the intent to do that act
2. those crimes which require the the act and the intent to do that act and the mens rea, which means merely that the intention must be wrongful morally or legally as to the act committed
3. those crimes which require the act and the intent to do that act and mens rea and specific intent

It is a general rule of the common law that no one is guilty of a criminal offense unless there is a criminal intent or mens rea. Motive is the stimulus for one’s doing an act. Motive is no part of a crime, but it is highly important in detecting and proving who may have committed a crime.

4. Injury Caused

It means that the act or omission must have caused an injury either to a person or a property or even the reputation of a person (in case of defamation). If no harm or injury is caused, the act or omission cannot be amounted to crime. The intention to cause may or may not be essential for such injury to be caused.

5. Causation

The question whether or not the defendant’s act in a criminal case is the proximate cause of the prohibited result, is always a fact question for the jury to determine, under proper instructions from the court. If the defendant’s act is the sole proximate cause of the prohibited result, then the defendant is criminally responsible. If the defendant’s act is a contributing proximate cause of the prohibited result, the defendant is liable. If the defendant’s act is criminal and wrongful but is not a contributing proximate cause to the prohibited result, then the defendant is not criminally liable. If the defendant’s act causes other events to happen which cause the prohibited result, then the defendant is liable.

Criminal Law in India

Every country in the world have their distinct set of criminal laws. During the Mahomedan period in India, both the Hindus and the Mahomedans were governed by the Mahomedan criminal. The Indian Penal Code, 1860 has worked for a hundred years created by the Britishers and still in use with a number of amendments made to its structure. The Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 provides for the procedural framework and Indian Evidence Act, 1872 helps in proving and establishing the crime.

The total number of cognizable crimes under the Indian Penal Code had been constantly on the increase. Moreover, the rate of increase for each major crime far exceeded that of population growth.  There is a spike in women targeting crimes as well and hence a lot of women centric laws and amendments have taken place. Unemployment is one of the primary reasons along with hatred, religious sentiments etc.

Conclusion

The aforementioned elements are the usual elements of crime which usually find place in all criminal acts around the globe. However, due to changing times, there can be a number of acts or legislations which do not incorporate all these elements but might proclaim an activity to be a crime nevertheless. Some of them can be the legislations related to narcotics or terrorist activities in many countries. It is possible because a crime is anything which a law commands to be a a crime.

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References:

[1] Ivins, William M. “What Is Crime?” Proceedings of the Academy of Political Science in the City of New York, vol. 1, no. 4, 1911, pp. 531–558.

[2] Patra, Atul Chandra. “AN HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION TO THE INDIAN PENAL CODE.” Journal of the Indian Law Institute, vol. 3, no. 3, 1961, pp. 351–366.

[3] Leng, Roger. “Incitement. An Objective Approach to the Definition of Crime?” The Modern Law Review, vol. 41, no. 6, 1978, pp. 725–730. 

[4] Chester H. Smith. Smith’s Review of Criminal Law for Law School and State Bar Examinations (1958).